The Feld Ballet, led by Eliot Feld, absent from Chicago since 1979, re-establishes an annual mini-residency here with a two-week engagement in Goodman Theatre`s enterprising dance series.
JAN. 31
Shakespeare`s ”Hamlet,” directed by Robert Falls and with Aidan Quinn in the title role, opens at Wisdom Bridge Theatre in an ambitious, flawed and daring contemporary production. Among the first of the new year`s theatrical productions, it is also the best.
FEB. 3
Under Gary Sinise`s galvanizing direction, Steppenwolf ensemble members John Mahoney, Terry Kinney and Kevin Anderson storm Lyle Kessler`s ”Orphans” and turn this tale of two strange brothers and a mysterious intruder into a bravura display of acting. The production is transferred in toto to New York`s off Broadway, where it becomes a key factor in the rage for Chicago theater that hits Manhattan in 1985. Before the year is out, Albert Finney is set to play in a 1986 London production, also to be directed by Sinise.
FEB. 5
American Ballet Theatre, the biggest dance attraction of the year in Chicago, opens a disappointing two-week run in the Auditorium Theatre, with a lavish revival of Kenneth MacMillan`s ”Romeo and Juliet” and David Gordon`s venturesome new ”Field, Chair and Mountain,” but without Mikhail Baryshnikov and with an otherwise routine repertory.
MARCH 14
The New Theatre Company, established by the Chicago Theatre Group
(Goodman Theatre) and directed by Gregory Mosher, makes its debut with a stultifying production of Anton Chekhov`s ”The Cherry Orchard,” translated by David Mamet and directed by Mosher.
The MoMing Dance and Arts Center of Chicago becomes one of 14 similar groups across the country taking part in a new National Performance Network, inaugurated by the Dance Theatre Workshop of New York, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and designed to subsidize nationwide touring by performing artists.
MARCH 23
Four years after its London premiere and three years after its Broadway opening, the musical ”Cats” bows here at the Shubert Theatre with an advance ticket sale of more than $4 million. It is the first big (and almost only)
downtown theater event of the year.
APRIL 16
Merce Cunningham, an authentic genius of modern dance, opens with his company for a one-week run at Goodman Theatre.
APRIL 23
David Mamet`s minor but arresting ”The Shawl,” second production of the New Theatre Company, opens the Briar Street Theatre, 3133 N. Halsted St., an inviting new theater space created from a former Marshall Field`s delivery stable by filmmaker Walt Topel.
APRIL 24
The Joel Hall Dancers, after 11 seasons as a jazz dance group in Chicago, makes its downtown debut with a week-long engagement in the Civic Theatre and prepares for its European debut May 16 at the May Fest in Glasgow, Scotland.
APRIL 30
After more than five months of shuttle-plane negotiations, Gregory Mosher, 36, director of Goodman Theatre since 1978, finally, formally accepts the New York job of director of theater at Lincoln Center at a starting salary of $100,000. His departure spells the end of the New Theatre Company he inaugurated. Much soul-searching and angry recriminations among Goodman board members follow when it is learned that the theater is $750,000 in debt.
MAY 13
The Chicago theater community joins the nationwide concern over AIDS with a benefit at Second City for victims of the disease.
MAY 14
Opening a tour of Scotland and England, Wisdom Bridge Theatre`s production of ”In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison” bows at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow to rapturous reviews, and a few days later, on May 21, makes a smashing debut at the American Festival in London for actor William L. Petersen and director Robert Falls at the Lyric Studio.
MAY 17
Abe Burrows, 74, raconteur, director and author of the classic 1950 musical ”Guys and Dolls,” dies in New York after a long illness.
MAY 21
The anticipated June 19-22 visit of the Paris Opera Ballet to Chicago under sponsorship of producer Geraldine Freund is canceled after negotiations involving repertory and finances fall through.
MAY 29
Jim Sherman`s new comedy-drama ”The God of Isaac,” about a search for his ethnic roots by a young Jewish writer, opens at Victory Gardens Theatre. Buoyed by group sales, the show is a smash hit there and is transferred with success to larger venues at the Briar Street Theatre in October and the Ivanhoe Theatre in December.
JUNE 2
Steppenwolf Theatre, capping a year of national fame and near-idolatry in New York, receives the 1985 Tony Award as outstanding nonprofit regional theater. In a lackluster Broadway year, the Tony for best play goes to Neil Simon`s ”Biloxi Blues” and for musical to ”Big River.”
JUNE 14
In the belief that ”Chicago is the hottest theater city in the country,” American National Theater director Peter Sellars imports Steppenwolf and Wisdom Bridge theaters for two productions each in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
JUNE 19
Organizers of the first Chicago International Theatre Festival announce plans for a month-long presentation of six foreign companies (including the National Theatre of Great Britain) and 11 resident Chicago troupes to play here in the spring of 1986.
JUNE 27
Kuumba Theatre`s hit musical ”In the House of the Blues” travels in a slightly revised cabaret version to the Montreal jazz festival for an enthusiastically received 11-day visit and is invited back for a fall engagement.
SEPT. 12
Ron Hutchinson`s ”Rat in the Skull,” dealing humanely and dramatically with contemporary conflict in Ireland, triumphs in a Wisdom Bridge production directed by Steven Robman and starring Brian Dennehy. Amazingly, it receives no nominations for Joseph Jefferson Awards.
SEPT. 14
The Different Drummer Music Theatre, one of dozens of new groups to launch their careers in Chicago this year, announces itself as a strong young troupe of talent with its vibrant opening production of the musical
”Working.”
SEPT. 17
The Organic Theatre, reorganizing after the departure of director Stuart Gordon for movie work, presents ”Rubber City,” a new surrealistic play written and directed by its new artistic director, Thomas Riccio, about the last day of an Elvis Presley impersonator. Rough and still in need of work, it soon closes, leaving the Organic space empty for the rest of the year.
SEPT. 23
Larry Shue, 39, rising actor and playwright whose hit off Broadway comedy ”The Foreigner” is to open a Chicago area production Oct. 2 at the Forum Theatre, is killed in the crash of a commuter plane in Virginia.
OCT. 10
Yul Brynner, indelibly identified in the theater as the king of ”The King and I,” dies in New York after a long battle against cancer.
OCT. 26
Chicago City Ballet, confining itself to smaller theaters for much of the year in an effort to reduce its expenses and lower its deficit, gives a single, well-attended performance in the downtown Auditorium Theatre. In a further cost-cutting move, the company`s traditional Thanksgiving holiday production of ”Cinderella” is not presented this year.
OCT. 28
The top Joseph Jefferson Awards for excellence in Chicago-based Equity productions go to the musical ”Nine” at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse and, in a tie for best play, ”Orphans” and ”Hamlet.”
NOV. 16
”Dogman`s Last Stand,” a perceptive, moving study of a Rust Belt worker and his friends, by Rick Cleveland, opens in the Victory Gardens Theatre Studio. This latest work by a young writer of great promise is one of several new plays by new playwrights–Clifton Campbell (”Nativos”), Joel Johnson
(”The Milk of Human Kindness”), Lawrence Arancio (”Alcimero”), among others–that keep Chicago a fertile ground for the growth of theater artists. NOV. 19
Robert Falls, director of Wisdom Bridge Theatre, is officially selected as the new artistic director of Goodman Theatre, effective Jan. 1. A few weeks later, actor-author-director Frank Galati is signed as associate artistic director, effective July 1, 1986. Picking of the new team ends a difficult, leaderless period for the Goodman.
NOV. 27
The Stratford Festival of Canada, in its first Chicago appearance since 1970, presents Shakespeare`s ”King Lear” and ”Twelfth Night” in repertory at the Blackstone Theatre.
DEC. 6
”Pump Boys and Dinettes,” the smash hit country-western-folksy musical, celebrates its first anniversary at the Apollo Theater.
Burr Tillstrom, beloved creator of the Kuklapolitan Players, whose puppet shows had enjoyed several popular Christmas-time presentations at the Goodman Theatre Studio, dies at 68 in Palm Springs, Calif.
